Hong Kong finds 90-year-outdated cardinal responsible over professional-democracy protest fund | Information
Hong Kong
News
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A 90-year-aged former bishop and outspoken critic of China’s ruling Communist Get together was located guilty Friday on a charge relating to his job in a reduction fund for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests in 2019.
Cardinal Joseph Zen and five many others, which include the Cantopop singer Denise Ho, contravened the Societies Ordinance by failing to sign up the now-defunct “612 Humanitarian Reduction Fund” that was partly employed to pay protesters’ authorized and clinical fees, the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts dominated.
The silver-haired cardinal, who appeared in court docket with a going for walks adhere, and his co-defendants experienced all denied the charge.
The situation is considered a marker of political liberty in Hong Kong for the duration of an ongoing crackdown on the professional-democracy motion, and will come at a sensitive time for the Vatican, which is planning to renew a controversial offer with Beijing around the appointment of bishops in China.
Zen and four some others – singer Ho, barrister Margaret Ng, scholar Hui Po Keung, and politician Cyd Ho – who were trustees of the fund had been sentenced to fines of HK$4,000 ($510) just about every.
A sixth defendant, Sze Ching-wee, who was the fund’s secretary, was fined HK$2,500 ($320).
All experienced in the beginning been charged underneath the controversial Beijing-backed countrywide stability legislation for colluding with international forces, which carries a highest penalty of everyday living imprisonment. All those expenses were being dropped and they as an alternative confronted a lesser cost underneath the Societies Ordinance, a century-outdated colonial-period regulation punishable with fines of up to HK$10,000 ($1,274) but not jail time for initial-time offenders.
The court docket listened to in September that the legal fund raised the equal of $34.4 million by way of 100,000 deposits.
In addition to delivering economic assist to protesters, the fund was also employed to sponsor pro-democracy rallies, this kind of as paying out for audio machines used in 2019 for the duration of avenue protests to resist Beijing’s tightening grip.
While Zen and the other five defendants were spared from getting billed less than the countrywide protection legislation, the laws imposed by Beijing in excess of Hong Kong in June 2020 in a bid to quell the protests has repeatedly been employed to suppress dissent.
Considering the fact that the imposition of the regulation, most of the city’s prominent pro-democracy figures have either been arrested or long gone into exile, even though quite a few impartial media outlets and non-government corporations have been shuttered.
The Hong Kong government has consistently denied criticism that the legislation – which criminalizes acts of secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with international forces – has stifled freedoms, claiming in its place it has restored order in the metropolis soon after the 2019 protest movement.
Hong Kong’s prosecution of just one of Asia’s most senior clergyman has cast the romantic relationship among Beijing and the Holy See into sharp aim.
Zen has strongly opposed a controversial arrangement struck in 2018 between the Vatican and China above the appointment of bishops. Earlier both sides had demanded the ultimate say on bishop appointments in mainland China, the place religious functions are heavily monitored and in some cases banned.
Born to Catholic mom and dad in Shanghai in 1932, Zen fled to Hong Kong with his household to escape looming Communist rule as a teen. He was ordained as a priest in 1961 and made Bishop of Hong Kong in 2002, prior to retiring in 2009.
Known as the “conscience of Hong Kong” among the his supporters, Zen has prolonged been a notable advocate for democracy, human legal rights and religious flexibility. He has been on the entrance lines of some of the city’s most significant protests, from the mass rally from national protection laws in 2003 to the “Umbrella Movement” demanding universal suffrage in 2014.
Hong Kong
News
—
A 90-year-aged former bishop and outspoken critic of China’s ruling Communist Get together was located guilty Friday on a charge relating to his job in a reduction fund for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests in 2019.
Cardinal Joseph Zen and five many others, which include the Cantopop singer Denise Ho, contravened the Societies Ordinance by failing to sign up the now-defunct “612 Humanitarian Reduction Fund” that was partly employed to pay protesters’ authorized and clinical fees, the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts dominated.
The silver-haired cardinal, who appeared in court docket with a going for walks adhere, and his co-defendants experienced all denied the charge.
The situation is considered a marker of political liberty in Hong Kong for the duration of an ongoing crackdown on the professional-democracy motion, and will come at a sensitive time for the Vatican, which is planning to renew a controversial offer with Beijing around the appointment of bishops in China.
Zen and four some others – singer Ho, barrister Margaret Ng, scholar Hui Po Keung, and politician Cyd Ho – who were trustees of the fund had been sentenced to fines of HK$4,000 ($510) just about every.
A sixth defendant, Sze Ching-wee, who was the fund’s secretary, was fined HK$2,500 ($320).
All experienced in the beginning been charged underneath the controversial Beijing-backed countrywide stability legislation for colluding with international forces, which carries a highest penalty of everyday living imprisonment. All those expenses were being dropped and they as an alternative confronted a lesser cost underneath the Societies Ordinance, a century-outdated colonial-period regulation punishable with fines of up to HK$10,000 ($1,274) but not jail time for initial-time offenders.
The court docket listened to in September that the legal fund raised the equal of $34.4 million by way of 100,000 deposits.
In addition to delivering economic assist to protesters, the fund was also employed to sponsor pro-democracy rallies, this kind of as paying out for audio machines used in 2019 for the duration of avenue protests to resist Beijing’s tightening grip.
While Zen and the other five defendants were spared from getting billed less than the countrywide protection legislation, the laws imposed by Beijing in excess of Hong Kong in June 2020 in a bid to quell the protests has repeatedly been employed to suppress dissent.
Considering the fact that the imposition of the regulation, most of the city’s prominent pro-democracy figures have either been arrested or long gone into exile, even though quite a few impartial media outlets and non-government corporations have been shuttered.
The Hong Kong government has consistently denied criticism that the legislation – which criminalizes acts of secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with international forces – has stifled freedoms, claiming in its place it has restored order in the metropolis soon after the 2019 protest movement.
Hong Kong’s prosecution of just one of Asia’s most senior clergyman has cast the romantic relationship among Beijing and the Holy See into sharp aim.
Zen has strongly opposed a controversial arrangement struck in 2018 between the Vatican and China above the appointment of bishops. Earlier both sides had demanded the ultimate say on bishop appointments in mainland China, the place religious functions are heavily monitored and in some cases banned.
Born to Catholic mom and dad in Shanghai in 1932, Zen fled to Hong Kong with his household to escape looming Communist rule as a teen. He was ordained as a priest in 1961 and made Bishop of Hong Kong in 2002, prior to retiring in 2009.
Known as the “conscience of Hong Kong” among the his supporters, Zen has prolonged been a notable advocate for democracy, human legal rights and religious flexibility. He has been on the entrance lines of some of the city’s most significant protests, from the mass rally from national protection laws in 2003 to the “Umbrella Movement” demanding universal suffrage in 2014.